SOUTH BURLINGTON - Former South Burlington middle school teacher Jay Hoffman early this month voluntarily surrendered his license to the state.

"Mr. Hoffman will not be able to obtain an educator license in the State of Vermont," Stephanie Brackin, the digital communications and web manager for the agency of education wrote in an email on Wednesday.

Brackin stated there were no formal charges from the Agency of Education and "therefore we are prohibited from providing any additional information regarding the investigation."

Hoffman was fired in early November 2015 over allegations of misconduct with a student in 2005. He contested the charges in a series of private hearings.

An arbitration decision by attorney Michael C. Ryan on Aug. 14, 2016 decided the 2013 Vermont teacher of the year was rightly terminated from his position.

"The intentional, inappropriate touching described by the complainant, although not necessarily illegal, plainly and seriously offended the basic norms of teacher conduct towards students. Such touching provides just cause for termination," Ryan wrote.

The decision on Hoffman is listed publicly as a disciplinary action on the State Agency of Education website. Brackin stated that to her knowledge, the disciplinary action did not have an expiration date. The action was also sent to the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, a national clearinghouse based in Washington D.C.

Phiilip Roger the executive director of NASDTE said on Monday that that all state agencies use the clearinghouse when processing teacher applications from out of state.

"It's just an alert. There is very little information," Roger said describing how the national database would work in Hoffman's case. "It's a prompt for the hiring district to contact Vermont."

A USA Today investigation in February 2016 found the system for national background checks varied from state to state.

"In 11 states, background checks are primarily the responsibility of school districts or schools — not the state agency issuing teaching licenses. New Mexico, Nebraska and Indiana said their teacher-licensing agencies do not check all applicants against the NASDTEC clearinghouse for past disciplinary action."

Hoffman's attorney Lisa B. Shelkrot wrote in an email on Wednesday that the former technology teacher did not want to comment after giving up his license.

Attorney Pietro Lynn, who represented the South Burlington School District in the case, released a statement which said that since Hoffman is no longer a district employee, it cannot take further action against him.

"We certainly would not under any circumstance provide a positive recommendation for him if he were to apply for another position in teaching," Pietro stated. "We would expect that the Agency of Education and law enforcement would take appropriate action to deal with any issues outside the employment setting."